For years, even as Yahoo’s growth stalled, executives had this message for would-be suitors of its real estate: Thanks, but no thanks.

Well, not anymore.

Sunnyvale-based Yahoo is quietly shopping a massive, 48.6-acre development site it owns in Santa Clara not far from Levi’s Stadium, according to three people familiar with the situation. While Yahoo won’t talk about it, brokers for Yahoo have reached out to potential buyers in recent weeks, these people said.

Yahoo hasn’t locked up a buyer, and it’s still possible no deal will come out of the conversations, which sources described as early and not widely broadcasted. But deciding to shop the real estate punctuates a tumultuous year for the company as it has struggled to deal with flagging ad sales, rotating executive ranks, and withering investor criticism of a bloated workforce and an acquisition binge totaling nearly $3 billion. Earlier this month, Yahoo said it would pursue a plan to spin off its core Internet business, after efforts to offload its valuable stake in Alibaba cratered because of potential tax implications.

Selling the land could be seen by a good first step to raise cash, but falls short of calls by some analysts for Yahoo to slash its workforce and downsize its nearby corporate campus in Sunnyvale.

Offering the Santa Clara land for sale is significant for Yahoo because it was once viewed as a critical future expansion play. The company paid $106 million for it in 2006, back when Yahoo’s revenue was still growing. Four years later, under then-CEO Carol Bartz, Yahoo received approvals to build up to 3 million square feet of office or research and development space on the site in 13 buildings — enough room for more than 12,000 employees.

But while Yahoo demolished the existing structures, the company never built anything. Meanwhile, Yahoo’s top-line revenue dropped from a peak of $7.21 billion in 2008 to $4.6 billion in 2014. Last year, Yahoo struck a deal with the San Francisco 49ers to use the land as a parking lot. While details are sketchy, I'm told Yahoo is now working with real estate brokerage JLL to find a buyer. Brokers there didn't respond to a request for comment this week.

“I think it makes sense,” Jackson said when I told him about Yahoo shopping the Santa Clara site. “Our argument was they have way too many employees even still, and they need to dramatically cut because the profitability’s been shrinking for the last three years.

“There’s been outside pressure on the company building this year, so it’s not too much of a surprise that they would do things to show they’re creating value.”

It’s tough to estimate the value of the land because its vast size and shovel-ready development potential is unique in Silicon Valley right now. In August, Apple paid $138 million, or $3.2 million per acre, for a 43-acre vacant development site in North San Jose where it could build up to 2.8 million square feet of space. But Yahoo's Santa Clara land is located in a neighborhood that’s generally more richly valued, and has seen increasing real estate investment since the 2014 opening of the $1.3 billion stadium.

The Yahoo site is bounded by Tasman Drive to the north, Old Ironsides Drive to the east, Patrick Henry Drive to the west and Old Glory Land to the south. (While it’s mostly a huge vacant parcel, there are also four existing R&D buildings Yahoo owns between Democracy Way and Tasman Drive.)

Also affecting pricing is the unknown nature of the eventual buyer. An owner/user such as Apple or Google could pay more for a site it would occupy, as compared to a third-party developer looking to build a project, lease it out and make a profit.

Regardless, the investment sales climate — with real estate assets going for record prices — makes this a good time to sell. A rough ballpark sale price of $200 million, which is probably not out of line, might not seem that large given Yahoo’s revenue is still several billion dollars a year. But Jackson said it isn’t anything to sneeze at.

“These days it matters a lot,” Jackson said. “In our presentation, we show their real EBITDA number” — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — “when you back out stock costs and one-time gains is less than $200 million. So that’s meaningful.”

When it comes to real estate, Jackson’s recommendations go further, though, urging Yahoo’s board to do a sale-leaseback of the company’s 1 million-square-foot Sunnyvale headquarters to raise cash. It’s not unheard of for tech companies to go this route; earlier this year, Tibco Software, taking advantage of a hot real estate market, sold its Palo Alto campus for $330 million and leased it back from the buyer, Morgan Stanley. The real estate value was considered a major attraction point for Vista Equity Partners, which bought Tibco in 2014.

Tech analyst Rob Enderle, who has long followed Yahoo, said selling off the Santa Clara site is the right move. “It’s money they can use now to invest in other things, do acquisitions, keep the lights on,” he said. “It’s not that they’re not generating cash — they are — but this would be that extra boost.”

Still, Enderle expressed caution about selling the company’s headquarters, and there is no evidence Yahoo is considering such a move.

“I’m not a fan of that, because you’re taking a cost that’s a fixed, steady cost and you make it fluid,” he said. “So now you’re at the mercy of who owns the property. Yes, you dump the asset and it’s worth cash, and it makes sense tactically. But if rents go up, your rent’s going up. From a long-term standpoint, it’s a bad idea.”

No matter who ends up with the Santa Clara development site, a buyer would likely want to make changes to the existing project approvals, a top real estate development executive familiar with the project told me. The trend in real estate development is toward larger floor plans, and the existing entitlement contemplates 13 buildings — too many for the kind of efficient, large floor plates that are said to foster collaboration.

A buyer would also have to sort out the existing agreement with the 49ers, which is starved for parking in the area around the stadium. But a source familiar with the deal said Yahoo built in “out clauses” that let it exit the agreement easily. Yahoo is also a founding sponsor of Levi's Stadium.

Even if Yahoo makes a significant profit on a sale, it won’t solve all the company’s problems. “They have to make a change in current management,” Jackson said. “Current management continues to spend way too much money on office holiday parties and going to Davos. It’s got to be a concerted cost-savings effort.”